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Alright! It’s been so very long since the last time I blogged something in here. Let’s write something. I’ve my cup of coffee next to me; it promises to bring out the best in me! Let’s put that to test. Let the creative juices flow.. here we go!

So, what do I write about? Umm.. Let me write about what I’ve been up to these days; but no one wants to read about that. I’m no celebrity that I go around doing s#it, and yet people would want to know what I’m up to. How about writing about these “celebrities”? Shah Rukh? No, that’ll offend the Salman fans. So, Salman? No, that’ll offend the black bucks. Then, why don’t I write about Aamir? But that would be like rubbing salt on the wounds of all those who were offended by PK. So do I write about the ones who drive their vehicles peekay and get away with it? And darn, I’m back to Sallu Bhai again. Okay, so forget the movie stars. Let’s write about the small screen. So I watched Seinfeld recently and it’s undoubtedly the best sitcom ever.. No wait, all the FRIENDS fanatics will be offended. Let’s talk about FRIENDS then.. I don’t think Rachel & Ross were “on a break”. And now I’ve offended all those who think otherwise. DAMN.. I can’t catch a break! Let’s think of something else. Hey how awesome was the AIB Knockout, right? Oh no, that’ll offend a whole lot of “sanskari” Indians out there. And I’m not even counting all the TVF fans who’ll get offended as well. Okay, how about politics? Let me write about the growing intoler.. I’ve not even completed the sentence and I can already sense me being labelled a Pakistani. Can I write about Modiji? He’s been a good PM so far. No, that’ll offend the Sahitya Akademi winners. And if I get a lil critical about him, it’ll offend all the pseudo-patriotic bhakts. And I read somewhere that writing against the state is treason, apparently. Well, I’m too delicate for prison. How about sports? Hey isn’t it absolutely ridiculous that people lose their cool cause some poor social media guy working for an airlines did not know the full name of some player who plays not-the-most-popular sport in the world? Okay, I’m entering a very sensitive play field here.. I can’t say anything that involves the “GOD”. Let me write about the other revered gods then. Well, there aren’t many thoughts I’ve to share about those gods, and the ones I have will most likely get me killed. So let’s steer away from the topics that could get me killed. Btw, recently I’ve been thinking about switching to an iPhone.. And here come the boos from the Android world! Oh this is super fun. I don’t even need to write a whole blog to offend someone. I’ll write B _ _ F, and there I’ve offended so many without even writing a complete word. Relax guys, I was just B LU F..fing. Hey, it was International Men’s Day a couple of days back.. Let me write about that huh? No, that’ll offend the pseudo-feminists. So, I could write about feminism; but that’ll offend the humanists. What does ‘humanist’ even mean? Doesn’t the word humanist offend the animals? Can I write about a pet dog I had when I was a kid? But now that I think of it, it might offend the pet cat I had. So what do I write about? Can I BE more confused! Well, I give up.. I don’t have anything to write about. But I believe I have made my point.. *wink wink*

It’s been almost two years I’ve been writing my thoughts out via this blog. Although writing, for me, has never been much of a passion as an occasional hobby. I blog when there’s something I feel like writing about; something I feel like sharing my views or opinions about. There have been quite a few things I have written about in these couple of years. I know for a fact that I haven’t got lot many readers. But again, writing for me is just putting my thoughts out there. I know I’m not very good at it. But it’s something that makes me happy. I love writing on the topics I have a say about. But then, there’s this one topic I’ve always had very strong opinions and my own perspective about. But somehow I could never get myself in to writing about it. May be I did not consider myself to be capable enough to effectively communicate those views through my writing. Not that I’m in any better position now. My only thought-process behind writing this piece is ‘Let’s give it a try.’ And the reason I’ve had to really keep contemplating about my decision to write on this topic is because; it can get really sensitive. If you are going to publicly voice your opinions about the ‘concept’ of God, or about the whole idea of worship, you may be at a risk of offending the faiths and beliefs of a group at large. So am I here to in any way offend their devotion? No. In fact the utter sincerity in their reverence always leaves me a lot impressed. They are so passionate about it. And just to clarify I’m referring to only those who are truly genuine in their devotion and admiration for Him; not those who just use His name to nurture their selfish interests. But am I passionate about devotion? I don’t think so.

Truth be told, I’m not a believer. And I’m usually very frank about it. My parents know about it. Many of my friends obviously know about it. And I rarely shy away from being open about it. Somehow, my thought-process doesn’t make me a believer. And I like to keep the reasoning behind me being a non-believer to myself. Because I don’t really want to force my thought-process on to anyone else; neither do I need to reason myself and defend my though-process. Then if I’m not here to write about I being a non-believer then why am I here? I’m here not to write about how ‘theism’ doesn’t work for me, but am here to write how ‘atheism’ doesn’t suit me either. What is atheism? If you ask me, it is just a fancy word. Me being having atheist-like qualities myself, it would make more sense to write against those who believe. But, I have always had a lot of admiration for the believers. It’s these self-proclaimed atheists I have a problem with.

Who is an Atheist? A dictionary will tell you ‘A person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God’. Fair enough. Going by the words of the dictionary, I’m an atheist. But somehow when I come across the views and opinions of ‘atheists’ in general, I find my views and opinions a lot differing. For me, being a non-believer is a very personal and intimate feeling or rather a choice of living. That’s something I think is good for me. But, that doesn’t essentially necessitate me to be really adamant about it. If I am a non-believer, that doesn’t mean I should oppose anything and everything that even remotely resembles theistic tendencies. I being a non-believer do not obligate me to talk against or ridicule those who believe. In fact like I have reiterated, the passion the believers have is something I consider of the highest form. Nobody can be as passionate about anything as a believer is about his faith in Him. And I really adore that. I really respect that. And I being a non-believer do not make me any superior than them. If anything, I’m missing out on that feeling of happiness and contentment they gain through their reverence. And that’s, for starters, is something I hate about the ideologies these ‘atheists’ have. They are of the opinion that, since they have supposedly risen above any want of divine or spiritual inspirations, they are somehow more-evolved beings. Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t permit you to question the beliefs of those who do believe. Aren’t you being a total hypocrite when your beliefs are freedom of expression and their beliefs are an apparent exploitation of that freedom?

I’ve tried to be a part of many of these atheist forums just to get a flavor of how they think and what they think. I was under the impression that I’m among a group of like-minded people. But somehow, these atheists tend to be more anti-theists than atheists. I think they have completely lost it with their idea of atheism, which is more concentrated on targeting the believers rather than understanding the ethos of being a non-believer. Being a non-believer, for me, is not about being total big-head about it. I being a non-believer do not stop me from visiting temples. Are my visits to the temples triggered by a sense of devotion? No, it’s more of a social obligation. I visit temples, I take part in religious activities, and I offer my worships to Him, not because I believe in Him. It’s because I don’t want my beliefs to offend the beliefs of those who do believe in Him. My parents know that I’m a non-believer. But that doesn’t give me any right to oppose any of their beliefs. If their beliefs demand me to visit temples with them, take part in their religious activities and offer worships to their Gods, and if that makes them happy, I’ll not let my beliefs to come in way of their happiness. Being a non-believer is a belief in itself. And somehow the way in which others are okay with my belief in being a non-believer, I’ll be okay with their beliefs too. But this is a quality I found to be missing in these atheists I came across on these forums. For them, being a non-believer is a two-point agenda; Firstly, to consider their belief to be of the highest standard, and secondly, to not let go a single opportunity to prove the apparent superiority of their beliefs. It’s too important for them to project their beliefs through actions. So, visiting a temple is a complete taboo. Visiting a temple is equated to being a believer. Though I do agree if our beliefs aren’t reflected through our actions, those beliefs lose their essence. But that doesn’t mean we have to a really adamant about it. When we are sharing a life with a society comprising of people of all the beliefs, we should learn to respect and appreciate their beliefs too. For me, beliefs are a highly personal prerogative. They aren’t and shouldn’t be a substance of projection or show-off. And this applies to both theistic and atheistic beliefs. If I believe in something, I shouldn’t try to shove it down the throat of those whose beliefs don’t conform to mine. If even pretending to be a believer somehow helps maintain that decorum, I don’t mind it. That doesn’t necessarily change my core beliefs. They are still intact. I am just trying not to enforce them on others through my actions.

And another thing that surprises me about these atheists is that their whole atheistic ideologies are based upon the rationality or irrationality of doing something. They try to seek reasoning for everything they do. One thing they tend to forget is that, while we have evolved in to these brainy creatures that can care for rationality and reasoning, but at the very core we also have a mind which is capable of perceiving the emotions which surpasses the confines of rational thinking. Like, say, worshiping the forces of nature; I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with worshiping all these forces which we know exist, and in fact help in making our lives sustainable. We won’t be able to live a life if it wasn’t for these forces, the sun, the rains, the winds. Although rationality dictates that worshiping these forces as a feeling of gratefulness is pointless since these forces don’t have the ability to receive that gratitude. But we tend to forget that we, the humans, do have the ability to convey that gratitude, and nothings really lost if we do convey it to these forces, via worship. The want for reasoning in anything and everything we do, reminds me of robots. Robots work in complete accordance with logic. They can perceive only those things which are reasonable. If humans start looking for reasoning in everything they do, they are no better than robots. And these are just a few of the things that I think differentiate me from these ‘atheists’. I remember my friend once saying to me, these so-called atheists are so busy in religiously opposing the constitution of religion, that they tend to forget that their own rigid ideologies about the concept of atheism makes atheism a religion in itself. And I find it so very true. But then, like any other religion, the followers seldom try to be flexible with their ideologies. So, I don’t care what the dictionary says about being an atheist. According to me being an atheist is being anti-theist, which I’m not. Sure, I’m a non-believer; but atheist I’m not.

If there is one thing I have known about myself and I’m particular proud of, is the fact that I often tend to have an opinion about anything and everything around me. And I rarely try to change them just because others don’t agree with them. Not that I’m really rigid or opinionated by nature. But, more often than not I tend to stick to my opinions and I like to be really vocal about them. And even far more often, my opinions tend to differ from those around me. And, when that happens, I start getting the need to make them understand why I stand by this opinion and why it is good enough for me. I wish them to be accepting of my opinions. I don’t know why I feel the need for acceptance. Why cannot I just have an opinion and be happy about it. Rather than trying to get others to be okay with it.

And these opinions do cover a wide range of topics. Like the movies I liked or did not like. And especially when it comes to movies, my opinions always tend to differ from others. The movies they consider ‘mind-blowing’ often get a ‘duh’ reaction out of me. The movies they consider ‘a waste of time & money’ seem pretty ‘insightful’ to me. And these differences of opinions about motion-pictures are not limited to movies alone. The same applies to television. Just to give a couple of instances, many people (those who have been on that awesome electrifying ride called ‘Breaking Bad’) really hate Skylar White and consider her a bitch and I really don’t understand why. All she was doing the whole time was trying to protect her children from that devil, her husband, who could stoop to any levels to nourish his selfish interests. He was a monster and yet she did everything she could to be all supportive. She shouldn’t be on a receiving end of so much hatred. And similarly the HIMYM finale which received so much of criticism; I considered it to be a really sensible ending which was true to the story they have been telling for past nine years. It wasn’t a happy ending, I agree, but stories in real world seldom have a picture-perfect fairytale ending, right?

And again, I have my own set of opinions when it comes to the field of technology. Like, some 7-8 month back I switched to Windows Phone and I fell in love with it. Not that I hate Android. It is undoubtedly the best smart-phone OS around. But I was looking for a change and wanted to try something new and Windows Phone did not disappoint me. It is really awesome, has a lot of cool features, and I’m really happy with it. And in fact many who write it off do not know a thing about it. And again they try to stereotype those who are fond of Windows Phone. Just because I really love my Lumia, does not mean I liked Nokia X as well. It is a stupid phone. Rather go for a mainstream android than this dumb forked version. And another stupid thing I hear a lot is that just because Nokia released an Android, it means they are getting sick of Windows Phone. And I’m like, are you kidding me? The makers of Windows Phone own Nokia now. That does not even make sense. And further more even Samsung, HTC have their own Windows Phones. Ring any bells?

And it is not like I tend to be really hard and fast about my opinions. My opinions are flexible enough to change overtime. Like, there was a time when I was really fond of Samsung phones and I considered them to be the best Android bargains available in the market. Well, markets change with time and so have my opinions. Now I consider Samsung to be over-expensive crap stuffed with stupid features and useless specs just to lure all those poor ignorant fellows who believe in the ideology ‘the more the better’. Micromax and HTC on the other hand have got really good deals out there in the market. Similarly, Apple never tries to tempt their consumers by flooding their phones with senseless features. (The brand ‘Apple’ is enough to seduce them. LOL.) And moving away from the world of technology, and in to further proving the point than I’m pretty flexible with my opinions. Like once upon a time I was really fond of one Mr. Arvind Kejriwal and was really impressed by his political ideologies. I have had long debates on Facebook in support of his ideologies, and even now I’m very much supportive of them. But over the period of time I have gotten really sick of this Kejriwal fellow and all his dramebaazi. And also here in India people have this preconceived notion that if I support the ideologies of a certain political party that means I hate the others. Just because I’m fond of AAP does not mean I hate Mr. Modi. I am pretty sure he will make a great PM and show India the good days it has been waiting for. But again I do feel India can do a lot better than him (No offence intended.) In fact the need to write ‘No Offence’ itself clarifies why India can do a lot better than BJP (If you know what I mean.) Don’t be blind followers. Be smart enough to see good and bad in everything you endorse.

And I can go on rambling about all these opinions I have got and why I feel the way I do. I don’t necessarily wish to get you onboard with my opinions, just want you to be respectful of them. But why shouldn’t I be like, say, ‘I don’t believe in the existence of God’ and that’s it. End of topic. I am at liberty of having my opinions. If you agree, good. If you don’t, don’t judge me by my opinions. Just consider it to be another perspective to look at things. It’s good to have an opinion of our own. Nothing’s wrong with it. Problems tend to start when the opinion turns out to be a minority opinion.

2nd January ’13, was my day one at Accenture. And now that it’s been a year, I must say, it has been an amazing journey so far. What did it have in store for me? Well, a lot of things; new experiences, new people, new challenges, new insights, in fact a whole new perspective about life. 2013 was indeed awesome. It was the beginning of a whole new life in itself. The corporate life. All these years I have been a student, life was fun. And now that I have started working, I thought, the things will get all serious. But no, I was wrong; work life is fun too. Though we should not compare it with the times we spent in college. But yes, this one year at Accenture has indeed been amazing. I made a lot of new friends. Met so many new people. And it has been a great experience overall. Not only the fun times I had during our training days; but also the time spent working on projects, it was all new and exciting. New things fascinate me. And I had a plenty of those throughout the year. And also there’s that seriousness and sense of responsibility one feels about how one wants to shape his career and eventually his life. When in college, we don’t really care much about how our life would shape up a few years down the lane. We don’t plan our lives. Life’s just a journey, and we are busy enjoying every bit of it, not being much concerned about the future. But as we start working, we do start taking our life a little bit more seriously. We start planning for our future. Everyone does. One gets a better idea about what he wants to do with his life. What he wants to do with his career. This “getting all independent and being responsible for our own life” feeling is both exciting and also a bit intimidating. But, I love it. And not to forget the perks of having started working; getting your bank accounts credited every month end. Though, after the initial few months one kinda gets used to it. But that feeling after getting the first salary, it’s amazing. All those gifts you buy for your family. It really feels so good. It’s indeed an awesome feeling to have started earning. And well, it’s just a beginning. And I sincerely hope, in years to come, my career and my life shapes up the way I wish it to be.

Have you ever wanted to just be alone! Far away from all the daily worries and anxieties you have been carrying just because you cannot do away with them. Away from all the relationships and friendships you have been maintaining just because social protocol dictates that you make friends and build relationships. Away from all the hassles of a busy urban life. Far away, secluded, in your own little world. Once in a while, it does feel good to spend some quality time all alone. Being alone has its own pleasures. We can have a nice conversation with our inner self. And I believe this is the best conversation one can ever have. Cause, you are the one who understands you the best. Cause, you can be totally open about your feelings. Cause, you cannot lie about your feelings to yourself. You can look on to your life from your own perspective, totally uninfluenced by any external worldly woes. In these fast-paced times, we rarely get an opportunity to really think about of our own life. We are always surrounded by people. We are always occupied with so many things. There’s no time we are left with for ourselves. So, we need to force ourselves to get away from all these distractions. It is not always that easy though. However we need to make some time available, exclusively reserved, for just being on our own, all alone. We should experience the joy of solitude. It is serene. It is divine. I’m not asking to be totally cut off from the rest of the world for days. But spending just an hour every day or a day every week all alone isn’t a very bad idea. May be you can visit some river bank or a hillside outside your city and try to get closer to the nature. Or you can just stand in your balcony, put on some good music on to your ears, sip a cup of tea may be. Try and isolate yourself from the rest of the world. Try and connect with the inner you. Try to listen to your inner voice. Listen to what it says. Your life is controlled by all the elements around you. Your inner soul knows what you really want out of your life. Try and listen to what it says. You’ll get the answers to a lot of questions that were left unanswered. Keep listening. You’ll learn the true meaning out of your life. Keep listening. Keep on listening. You’ll be in the company of your own. It’ll be quiet. It’ll be peaceful. It’ll be blissful. Like they say, no company is as companionable as solitude. But beware. Don’t keep on being into yourself all the time that you totally forget about the world outside. Don’t keep on being isolated in your own world to the point where the real world outside gets all alienated to you. Remember, there’s a very fine line between the joy of solitude and the pain of loneliness. Don’t cross that line. The life on the other side of the line is as excruciating as the life on this side is comforting. Do relish the pleasures of solitude, but know where to stop.

It was 24th of Sept. The day I was born, 23 years ago. And as the clock struck 12, began the annual ritual called the birthday! I cut the cake my roomies brought for me. They applied some on my face. I thanked them for the delicious cake. I got a few calls from few of my friends to wish me happy birthday. I got pings from a few on whatsapp; and the few others posted the greetings on my Facebook. It does feel good. It feels special. Birthdays are really awesome. Well, because, it is the day when a lot of people who otherwise won’t really bother to get in touch, do reach out to you, to wish you. On any ordinary day you are just another employee in the office, but on your birthday it feels nice when your colleagues walk to your desk to greet you; (and of course, to have the chocolates you got for them.) It’s like you are the center of all the attention. And it feels good. I felt good. Everyone does.

But then comes 25th of Sept. And the phone which was buzzing so much the day earlier, goes all silent. And there are no more pings, no more calls, and no more Facebook notifications. You are again just another employee, just another friend, just another dot among the billion others. The life goes back to being all normal, the way it was the day before your birthday. And that makes me wonder, all the attention been bestowed the day earlier, was it just a formality? Or did it mean something? Does it always have to be a birthday for someone to remember somebody else? Why can’t people take out some time, otherwise, to call somebody up and may be have a word or two; get to know, how he/she is doing. Why does it always have to be a birthday?

May be it is not the same for others. May be it is the way it is just for me. May be they all feel like getting in touch with me only on my birthday. May be they are too busy at other times or maybe they are least interested to know what’s going on with my life. May be I am wrong and I am just being in captivity of this negativity. I don’t know! What I do know is that life goes on. It’s useless to keep on thinking about why others don’t really care about you or your life. You just can’t spend your life wishing for others to take your existence seriously. By doing this you are underestimating the importance of your own life. Stop complaining. Enjoy the life you have and cherish the few people you have in your life who truly care about you, more than you do; your family. And as time goes, you’ll surely meet that one person who would appreciate you the way you are, and not just take it for granted; that special someone who would love to be a part of your life. Till then, remember, life is precious, better be thankful for the way it is. After all, you only live once!

It’s been quite a while since the last time I posted something in here. To be fairly accurate it’s been exactly 10 months and 11 days. A lot of things have changed since then. Well, I have started working. I have started living that typical home-to-office-to-back-home-waiting-for-the-weekends routine kind of life. Yes, I love my work. I love what I do. Though this life is a lot different from what it was back then. Back then, I was a guy just out of college, waiting for my joining, having lots of free time, and enjoying a well-deserved vacation after surviving four years of engineering. That was when I started blogging. What was that one thing that motivated me to start blogging? I don’t know. May be it was just a medium to express myself to the world; a medium to present my thoughts. That’s the same reason why I started tweeting a few years ago; to make a way out for the things inside me. I rarely express my feelings to the people I know; the thought of they being least interested, holds me back. There are a lot of things I would like to say which I cannot. I would surely say those things to someone, one day. But for the rest of the things, I blog, I tweet. I least care if anyone reads them or not. I just say what I want to say.

This thought takes me back to the time I realized that I love writing. Before the realization happened, I used to be confused about what’s that one thing I like to do. I was not much of a reader, not much into sports either, nor a movie-buff neither a person having a lot of fondness for music. Then during one of those boring lectures of S.E. Computers I penned down an article for our college magazine. It was called ‘The day in the life of an Engineering Student’. It wasn’t hard. All I needed to do is to translate my day into words. So, I wrote it down. I submitted it. And everybody liked it. They liked the way I presented my thoughts. May be it was because they could relate themselves with what I wrote. May be it was because I did do a good work at it. Whatever it was, the thing I gained from it was the realization, about my fondness for writing.

This fondness for writing was more of a fondness for expressing; the fondness for bringing out my views. However, not always are people able to digest those views. A view can be as insignificant as, say, a view about a movie you thought was not good enough. It can lead to people hating you for that view of yours. So, I expressing my views have not always gone down good with my friends. But this also reminds me of a piece I wrote in those last few days of college. It was called ‘FRIENDS’. And like the name suggests, it was about all those friends with whom I shared my years in engineering. It was a goodbye gesture from my side, and they all liked it. So there been a few sour moments among most of the happy moments, but at the end I was glad I was able to make them feel good. At least I thought so.

The same fondness for expressing gave birth to ‘Lonely Thoughts’. And few of my friends appreciating what I wrote, inspired me to write more. Though I know am not very good at it. Once, I was going through a blog of one of my colleagues, and his writing made me feel so inferior. May be it was this inferiority complex that resulted into me not blogging for over 10 months. However, that urge to express has not gone away. And it is the same urge that brought me back here. And it is the same urge that made me start blogging again. And I hope I continue expressing myself in days to come. And I wish those who read what I write, do like it. Well, this is just a new beginning!

I have been on twitter for almost 2-3 years now. It was a school friend of mine who forced me in to tweeting. Initially I was not much interested, but when I actually started using it, I started loving it. Earlier I used to tweet just occasionally, however for last few months have been using twitter pretty regularly. I have always maintained that, out of all the social networking sites out there, I love twitter the most. Many consider it just as a platform to follow their favorite celebrities. However I think twitter is much more than that. Twitter helps us to find out “What’s on the mind” of the people, in the real sense. It’s a great source of information, be it on technology, politics, entertainment, whatever. Twitter is also a platform to get up-to-date news about the things going all around the world. You can know the views of others and you can share your own thoughts too. Unlike facebook, I never get bored on twitter. It’s fun to go through the topics trending across twitter, and to read what the tweeples have to say about it. You can get to know a general opinion of the people on any topic of your choice. Wanna know what the people think about the latest Big Bang episode, just search for #TBBT. Wanna know how people are going gaga over the latest iPhone, a simple hash tag #iPhone5 will do the work for you. Yes, Twitter is Awesome!

If I have to compare it with facebook, FB is more of a platform to stay connected with your friends and family. On the contrary twitter is a platform to share your life with others. Facebook is a place where you can stay in touch with the people you know. Twitter is a place where you can share your views, opinions, experiences, with the world. However, I don’t like twitter because I could share my life with others. They probably might not be even remotely interested to know what’s going on with my life. I have over 100 followers, but hardly any of them might have read what I tweeted. In spite of this I kept tweeting all these years. I have some 500+ tweets out there @saketkore. Given that not many I know, actually follow my tweets; someone might think it is stupid on my part to keep tweeting. Then why do I tweet?

This may sound crazy, but I tweet for me to read them in the future, and revisit these days of the past. I tweet because I don’t want these memories to fade away as days pass by. I tweet because I want to share my present life with the future me.
Even now, whenever I scroll down through my twitter, I am able recollect a few incidents which have been totally washed out of my memory. I am able to recollect these moments just because I had put a silly tweet about it. They do bring a smile on my face. There have been lots of things that have happened in my life I have totally forgotten about, but I am able to revisit them, thanks to the 140 characters I wrote about them. As days go by, we start getting more and more busy. Our mind gets occupied with a lot of stuff happening around us. We have so much to deal with in the present that we rarely care about revisiting the past. However in future, whenever I’ll get some free time, I’ll go through my tweets of all these years. It would be such an amazing feeling to recall these days! People write personal diaries about their daily experiences. I too write one. But it’s out there public, on my Twitter. I share my days, my views, my thoughts, my feelings, with the whole of world. And most importantly with myself! Twitter helps me do that; helps me preserve my memories. Helps me archive my experiences. So that they will never get, washed out! That’s why I like tweeting. That’s why I love twitter!

1st of November, wrote a new chapter in to the history of Pune. Punekars celebrated the ‘Pune Bus Day’ wherein they chose to travel by buses instead of using their private vehicles. The initiative taken by the PMPML city bus services in collaboration with the ‘Sakal Media Group’, was appreciated by one and all. Though it has been five days past that event, I knew I had to write about this day. It was something that impressed me a lot. The one day event was a huge success, something, to be frank, I had not expected to happen. So, what was the ‘Pune Bus Day’ (PBD) all about?

Well, Pune is a major IT and Educational hub. So it attracts a large number of visitors who move in to the city, every year. Even I am not basically from Pune, and had come to the city four years ago to pursue my graduation. According to Pune RTO, as of October 2012, there were 23.13 lakh vehicles registered in Pune. And this does not even include the number of vehicles the new Puneites from outside bring with them. Moreover, 500 new vehicles get added everyday. All of this results in to the huge traffic congestion problem causing every day chaos on the city streets. PBD was an effort to demonstrate, how the use of public transport instead of private vehicles will help solve the traffic snarls. It was an initiative to promote the use of buses at least for a day, and see what all changes can be experienced. It was an attempt to prove, how an optimum number of buses with high frequency can actually reduce the traffic congestion in the city. Moreover apart from solving the problem of congestion, it will help to check the pollution levels in the city (Pune is one of the India’s most polluted cities), and also help to limit the fuel use. (No comments on fuel prices in India!) And the results were phenomenal indeed. Continue reading →